Interview with my Father - Roubik Dashdemirians

Filled with enjoyment and anticipation, my father, Roubik Dashdemirians, was impatiently waiting to share his childhood memories. Born in 1945, in Tabriz,Iran, his childhood was enjoyable, yet different. Growing up with a radio that couldn’t be touched and having a television with antennas that had to be personally moved around until the picture was clear wasn’t a good experience, but that was the lifestyle back then. Spending sixteen years in Tabriz, Roubik spent his time at the movies for hours and hours, played with balls made of string, went to house parties once in a while, and spent days with his friends without any technology. Parents were very strict back then and not being able to touch the radio was a very big deal for them. “The systems have totally changed and it’s very interesting for me and unbelievable,” says Roubik as he continues with his journey of telling stories of his childhood entertainment.

The biggest change is in radio and television. In our times, I was a big kid about 10 years old, my dad bought a big radio and it was very hard for us to get signal for stations. Every time a car would pass by, the sound would cut off but then it would start again. Most of the time, we’d have to go very close to it to understand what its saying. We couldn’t even touch it, only mom and dad could touch it to turn it on and off the radio. About 2-3 years later, better models came out.

We loved the radio but the programs were four-five hours a day, the rest was nothing besides songs we didn’t like. It was old songs, the new ones that we liked; we couldn’t listen to so we didn’t make much use of the radio. So we spent our time like that until about seven-eight years later, new and better systems came out. Then little by little, we started having control at age seventeen-eighteen that we couldn’t turn the radio on and off.

The television just came out when I was about sixteen-seventeen years old and it was black and white. The quality wasn’t so good, and if we look at it from up close, we couldn’t see anything. Nowadays, televisions are so good. You can look at it from angle, from whatever distance you want and it wouldn’t make a difference. The televisions were very big. The back was only about three feet. Big kids weren’t allowed to touch the TV or even look at it. We’d secretly look at it from the corner but we’d come and ask our parents fake questions so we can watch TV.

We didn’t have balls to play with. We’d take a string and wrap it around our hands to make a ball shape and tape it. After, we’d play football (soccer). We would hit it so much that nothing would be left after an hour. The string would fall out and a little thing would be left in the middle, we would just leave it there and go home. Then little by little, balls started to be made. They stitch little parts together to make a ball but that didn’t even really have a circular shape. It was angular. When we would throw the ball and the sharp part would hit us, our legs would be broken.

There were very little movies but when there would be about two movies, girls and guys would go separately. The movies weren’t like nowadays. There was no talking, it was just movement. We didn’t have a choice in movies. It was mostly Western movies being shown of people shooting each other with guns and we were very interested in it. People wouldn’t really understand what’s going on in the movie since it was just movement. Until later sounded movies came, no actually, first captioned movies came out that wrote the scripts on the bottom, then sounded movies came out and they announced over the TV or radio that a film has come out that speaks.

The movies now are all computerized with computers and have a system and you can’t even compare it to movies back in the days. It would take them thirty minutes to make a movie back then but now it takes months and years to make just a movie.

We didn’t have video games. We made the games ourselves. Most of the time, with smooth and clean rocks, we’d play lysbalis (a Persian game). You would throw a rock and the person would throw a rock and try to hit my rock. If the person didn’t hit it, they lost….if they did, they won. We would call it alak-dolak (a Persian game) we would put a small, six inch stick on the see-saw. With a long stick, we would hit the small one. Someone would stay far back and if someone could hit that stick of mine…it’s sort of like today’s baseball….if he could catch it, where ever he was, he would sit on my shoulders and I would have to bring him to where ever I was before. And if he couldn’t catch it, I, the hitter, would have to go sit on his shoulders so he can bring him.

There was very little. Parties would start at an older age. It would start about high school years. At younger ages, we didn’t have sweet sixteen’s, sweet eighteen’s, or twenty-one. It wasn’t outside because there was no place outside to go so it was at home.

Back then when you went to the movies, they would fill your pockets up with raisins and nuts or sunflower seeds. They would fill your pockets with sunflower seeds because they didn’t sell anything at the movies. Then, when they saw that people started bringing their own stuff in their pockets, they started selling items in the movies. In the middle of the movie, someone with a box full, they would yell “nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins!” The film is playing and this guy is yelling. With money worth now, we’d pay two or three cents and they’d give us a lot. A lot of people would cause unpleasant smells. It costs you $20 to go to a movie here. Back then with a few cents, you could be busy for four hours. And you could sit for however long you want. You would go to the movies in the morning and could stay until night. There was no number or anything. When the doors would open, everyone would tumble over each other to get in. They would run for the seats and happen to break them then you’d hear “BAM”. Someone would have to come fix the seat because it’s broken. There was no relaxation but people would love to go the movies.

Interviewed by Christine Dashdemirians